Washington golf in 7th after Round 1

By Aaron Viner | Jun 03, 2014

Journal file photoMaddie Hora scored a 101 on the first day of the state competition.

The Iowa girls’ state golf tournament got under way Monday, and after one day of competition, Washington has one competitor in the Top 10. Megan Buitendorp finished Day 1 of the two day competition with a 91, which was good for a tie for 10th place at Ames Golf and Country Club. As a team the Demons are tied for seventh place after play on Monday, but according to head coach Leonard Kull, the team is focused on moving up on the second day of competition. “That was the first day and we have another day,” Kull said. “I hope we have a better day tomorrow. It was awful windy here and I’m sure it had some effect on it, but everyone had to play in that. Tomorrow is a new day and we’ll try to move up.” The wind caused many scores to rise for golfers, with many shooting above their average Monday. Washington carded a team score of 397 for the first round, led by Buitendorp, and followed by Maddie Hora and Sarah Waite who both scored a 101. Deanna Peiffer put in a 104, while Brenna Burlingame scored a 109 and Brenna Weidman finished with a 120. “We’ve got a really young team,” Kull said. “There are several who are first year out and girls who haven’t really played in this environment. I just didn’t see a lot of characteristically good shots from our ladies and they got down and didn’t regroup themselves. I saw a lot of other teams in the same boat because they put a lot of pressure on themselves to play well and they were disappointed.” Leading the team tournament is Cedar Rapids Xavier who shot a 352 on the day, and has the two low individual scorers in the tournament in Maddie Bertsch (74) and Grace Winker (78). Kull’s goal for the team was for the team to calm down for the second day of competition, and play their own style of golf. “They are going to have to settle down and let the game come to them,” Kull said. “When you try to makes things happen you end up putting the ball too long or chipping too long and hitting the ball where it doesn’t need to be.” The Demons started up again at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, but final results will not be available at the time of production. Check out tomorrow’s edition of The Washington Evening Journal for full area results.